Deconstructed Vietnamese Shrimp Wraps

I was going to make summer rolls. You know, the kind you get at every Vietnamese restaurant. They are like the perfect food–fresh, delicious, healthy. The fact is, though, it takes a fair amount of work to make them for dinner. You have to soak each wrap individually, then quickly make the wrap, store them under a wet towel while you make the other ones and hope they don’t dry out too quickly. So tonight, as I prepared to make them, I felt a bout of laziness waft over me. No, I wasn’t making summer rolls. Now I had to think on my feet. Pretty much all we had were summer roll ingredients (why I had chosen to make them in the first place). Then it hit me, I could make them, just without actually MAKING them. I grilled the shrimp, I made the peanut sauce (3 parts peanut butter, 1 part coconut milk, 1 part soy sauce) and I ripped up the basil and mint leaves. Instead of the work of wrapping them all up individually, though, I just tossed them on a pile of rice noodles. Easy as hell, probably took like 5 minutes total. Swashed the whole thing with sriracha, and there you have it.

Un Chivo Delicioso: Goat Chilaquiles–kind of

I should have taken pictures, but my camera was out of battery, and really, there was no good angle. My goat chilaquile casserole, as I’ve decided to call it, looked like any baked cheese lasagna type thing from first glance. I could have taken a picture after I sliced it, but it looked as good as it tasted–like a goopy messy, drippy delicious pile of everything wonderful. Unfortunately, these things don’t translate well to photography. They look good to anyone in the vicinity, but I wouldn’t enter it in an art contest. There was melty baked cheese everywhere, thick homemade tortillas bathing in rich goat and roasted pepper stew and just thicker than runny egg yolks shining sunnily from the whole mess.

Chilaquiles are a traditional mexican brunch dish involving left over tortillas deep fried and layere with beans and cheese and sometimes eggs. I love chilaquiles, but am trying to be a little bit healthier, so I decided to do this a bit more like a casserole, and as a dinner dish.

I made the entire thing in a 9×6 lasagna pan, which was the perfect size. I put down a layer of homemade tortillas, one of goat stew, then cheese (queso fresco, of course). On top of this I cracked 2 eggs. Then layered more tortillas, more cheese, more goat. Then more tortillas and cheese on the top. Baked this for twenty minutes at 450 degrees. When it came out of the oven, I sprinkled it with a layer of cilantro.

A few things: Most any part of this could have been bought, I chose to make it all except the queso fresco myself, but that is because I like making tortillas and goat stew. The only thing I would say to not substitute is the queso fresco. It is simply the only cheese that fits here and is the most authentic (and delicious, but that is personal opinion).

Handmade tortillas: I used two cups of Maseca (corn flour) and one and a half of water, and a liberal sprinkling of salt. Mash this all together with your hands until it is one giant ball. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and grab out about a one inch ball of dough. Many recipes will tell you to roll it out between two sheets of plastic (which has never worked out for me) or to use a tortilla press (and I don’t got one of those). I use the authentic method, and reccomend you do too, because for this, it was great to have the slightly thicker, smaller sized tortillas. Smash your ball of dough flat between both hands. Then, using a slapping motion, smack your palms together, but with your fingers from one hand making a right angle to the other hand (if this confuses you, put down the dough, put your hands together like a prayer position, then, keeping the palms touching, rotate one hand 90 degrees towards you, this is how it should be when you slap them). Slap the dough back and forth between your hands until it gets bigger than your plams (at this point, if you keep going you will get dough everywhere). layer the tortillas on a plate, keep them from sticking using plastic wrap. To cook the tortillas, simply heat a skillet, dry, and leave them on each side until they just begin to brown.

 Goat stew: I made my stew with roasted peppers, since I don’t like tomatos. I used a 12oz jar of fire roasted red and yellow peppers (thank you trader joes). I blended these with a small can of diced jalapenos and half a cup of chicken stock. I poured this into the lasagna pan that I later cooked the whole thing in, then added about a pound of goat meat. I left this in a 325 degree oven for 2.5 hours. I took it out, fished all the goat out and let it cool. I took out all the bones from the goat and chopped it all up real small, then added it back to the stew, which I put over a low flame while I made the tortillas. At the last minute, I added half a sauteed white onion, one chopped fresh jalapeno and a bunch of chopped scallions.

Jerks and Mozzies

No they aren’t rival gangs, Jerks and Mozzies is what B asks for when he wants to go watch football at Wingmasters. In an effort to save some money and spend more time at home, I told him that I would make him Jerks and Mozzies while he watched football. Unfortunately it was an exciting game, and as such I neglected to write down what I put in to the dishes. Luckily I took a picture of the ridiculous mise en place I had for the jerk sauce, so I hope I can tell you approzimately what I put in there.

Starting with the bowl in the center, which is one bunch of scallions. The red in the one oclock position is 2 habanero peppers, working clockwise that is the juice of one lemon, an entire package of thyme (about 1/8 of a cup maybe?), about 5 cloves of garlic. These little ones are hard, but I ground all the spices myself, so I really don’t want to mess these guys up! A tablespoon of oil–I used a bit of sesame, a bit of hazelnut and a little olive. Then cinnamon, the flat chinese dish has a bay leaf, the bowl at the 11 oclock is ginger, next to it is nutmeg. of the four small spoons, I know one is salt and one is pepper. Okay, only two more spoons to think of. Um…one is coriander and one is allspice. Wheew. Remind me to right these down next time!

I put all these in a cuisinart and made them into a paste, I stuck them in the power marinater for about 20 minutes (equivilent to overnight) and baked the wings in a 375 degree oven for about an hour. What I didn’t do, which I think would have kept them a bit crispier, was to put them on a rack in the dish in the oven, as they ended up poaching a bit in the sauce.

So there they are in all their glory. Spicy and delcicious and way healthier than the ones at Wingmasters. The mozzarella sticks were way easier than I thought. I bought mozzarella string cheese, cut them in half, dipped them in egg beaters and rolled them in premade bread crumbs. Then I put them all in the fridge for a bit and repeated the process, then baked them at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them, because a few did burst before I got them out of there.

The Ethiopian Feast Part 2: Eat your Veggies

To go along with our meaty parts of the Ethiopian feast I made two veggie dishes, both of which I have seen on most every Ethiopian menu. The first was a simple salad with a very flavorful dressing. For this, I simply chopped romaine lettuce, white onions, half a jalapeno and a roma tomato and tossed them in a dressing. The dressing was the juice of half a lemon, a tablespoon of olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic (I said very flavorful!) with salt and pepper.

The greens were a little more complicated. I was hoping to do mustard greens, but the Greenwood Market seemed to not have those, so I chose collard greens instead. Also included in this dish were: half a green pepper (chopped), half an onion (chopped), 2 small thai hot peppers (diced), 2 cloves of garlic (minced), about a teaspoon of chopped ginger, nitter kibe, salt, pepper, cardamom and stock.

I chopped off the stems of the greens and blanched those for a good while. In the mean time I sauteed the green peppers, hot peppers, garlic, ginger and onion in two tablespoons of nitter kibe. I then added the greens’ stems and began blanching the leaves, while I continued to sautee the rest. When the leaves were done blanching, I added them to the sautee pan and poured in about a cup of chicken stock. Seasoned this with salt, pepper and a touch of cardamom. Once this had reduced down (about 15-20 minutes) it was ready to eat.

The Ethiopian Feast Part 1: Kitfo and Cheese

Kitfo, often referred to as Ethiopian steak tartar, is one of my very favorite foods in the world. It was very exciting to try my hand at this very simple dish. The first thing I did was to prepare the cheese that accompanies the meat. Because the meat is so spicy and flavorful, this bland and cooling cheese provides the perfect foil when the two elements are cradled together in a piece of injera.

For cheese: 1 quart of buttermilk (I used low fat, because I do try…), cheese cloth and a bit of quark (or yogurt if you have that already), salt

I poured the buttermilk into a large pan and kept it on low to medium heat for about 25 minutes, then drained it in a cheesecloth, working hard to get all the liquid out. I then placed it under a crate of oranges (though any heavy object will do) for another hour. When I removed it, I wanted a bit of a creamier texture, so I added about a teaspoon of quark, which worked perfectly, then just a dash of salt to bring out the natural flavors. I stuck this in the fridge for the 3 or so hours while I worked on the rest of the dishes, and I actually think the time in the fridge did it a fair amount of good, as it came out of the fridge tasting better than I remembered it going in.

For the kitfo beef, I chose to use a half pound of eye of round. Why eye of round? It was a very cheap, very lean cut. Buying extra lean ground meat would also work well, as would, I’m sure any other lean cut of beef. I chose to hand chop it myself to get the intense texture that comes from hand chopped steak (though B later said he preffered it ground. Oh Well). Then I microwaved (yeah, I’m lazy) 2 tablespoons of nitter kibe (spiced butter, from Zuma, see below) with a heaping teaspoon of berebere. Very important to let it cool after microwaving so that the butter does not cook the meat. Then, as I was serving the meat, I poured the butter/berebere mixture over the meat and mixed it well. Raw beef in all its glory.

The Making of an Ethiopian Feast: Shopping at Zuma

I used to live just down the street from Zuma, but I had never been there. The non-descript store front failed to call me in, and I knew where to get good Ethiopian food, and was just as happy to drive across town for it. But as I prepared to cook my Ethiopian feast, the fact that Zuma claimed to be a grocery store as well as a restaurant turned out to serve me well. I went in just after they opened, around 10:15 in the morning, and found the place empty except for a small child playing with his toys. There were two large fridges, one filled solely with giant ziploc bags of berebere, the Ethiopian spice mixture I had come for. The second was filled with a mish mash of random stuff and soda pop. On the opposite side of the room were shelf after shelf of various kinds of lentils. I picked out my enormous bag of berebere ($ and asked the friendly woman who had come out of the kitchen about nitter kibe, the spiced butter that my recipes called for. She went in to the back and brought me back a small plastic takeout container of it ($5). “Smell it,” she urged me. I did. As I sniffed the wonderful aroma, I knew my Ethiopian food would turn out well. With something this delicious smelling in it, there was no possibility of going wrong. I asked about injera, the lovely pancake like bread I was looking for to eat the food with. “Oh,” she said, looking concerned, “I’m running a little late, it is not ready yet.” Now, when searching for the freshest ingredients for a delicious feast, there are no better words you can here. She told me they would be ready in ten minutes. I walked across the street to the Greenwood Market where I was able to pick up the rest of my ingredients that I would need to make the feast. Upon my return, I was handed a giant plastic sealed bag still steaming with ten beautiful injera ($6). The fresh injera were so good that I devoured the first one totally plain when I got back to my house. The menu looked good, though I didn’t get the chance to try the food, I did notice they had kitfo, my very favorite Ethiopian dish.

 

Here is a photo of the final product. More posts to come with the recipes.

Lessons from a Chinese Roommate Part 2: Whole Steamed Fish

I consider myself a fairly adventurous eater so I was okay with it when one of the restaurants I worked in started serving whole sardines, head and all. As I watched the waiters get squemish, I was a little bummed that these staff of a seafood restaurant would be so scared of a fish head. It brought me back to my first whole fish experience, watching Tracey steam up whole trout in our kitchen, then excitedly pluck out the eyeballs.

So I mosied down to my local Whole Foods and picked up a nice whole trout. It was cleaned already, which was nice, since I have no idea how one cleans a fish. To be honest, a trout will have plenty of flavor with just a bit of lemon stuck in it, but I took this to the next step, throwing in some of the green chili paste I got at the Indian shop last week, as well as some lemon. I gave it a quick sear in a hot oiled pan, then I situated the whole thing on a plate atop some of the fresh swiss chard from the garden. Put the whole thing (plate and all) on a steam rack in a pan and steamed it for about ten minutes, flipped it and about 5 more. The fish came out perfectly. in each bite you got the soft fish flesh, a hint of bright lemon and then the bite of the hot chile paste. We tore through one side, though B refused an eyeball or a cheek (tiny on the trout, yet still delicious!).

 This is about as simple as a meal can get, yet it was so tasty and so fresh. Reminds you that cooking is not all stressing and mixing. Sometimes its just putting the right thing in to the pan. And not being squemish about fish heads.

Lessons from a Chinese Roommate Part 1: Turkey Dumplings

When I was in college, I had to roommates that were from China. One of them ate only week old balogna she kept in the desk drawer and the unmentionables of some of the guys that lived on our floor, but the other one taught me alot of what I now know about cooking. These two dishes, turkey wontons and whole trout in chile sauce are both inspired by dishes she would make.

One of the first things Tracey taught me about making dumplings was to not bother making the dough. Too much work, she said. Because I substitued ground turkey breast in for the pork for this recipe, I chose to use wonton skins in place of regular dumpling wrappers. The thinner wrap allowed the flavor of the meat a little bit more freedom. So to make the filling, just mix: 2.5 tablespoons of soy sauce, a tablespoon of mirin, 2 tablespoons of freshly minced ginger, a teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of sesame oil, 1.5 tablespoons of cornstarch and a little over a half pound of ground turkey breast. I also added some szechuan peppercorns, but that’s because I just bought them and am obsessed with putting them in everything. Mix this all well. I reccomend using your hands, if you aren’t meat phobic.

 Grab a bowl of water and a baking sheet to set up your work space. Put the wontons in close reach. Lay a skin in front of you and put a small amount of filling on to it, use your finger to put water around the edge on one side, then fold over to that side. The shape of your dumpling is important only for aesthetics, but the important step here is to make sure you press all of the air around the meat out, so your dumpling doesn’t get bubbles. Repeat until you use up all the meat. This recipe made about 40 dumplings. If your dumplings are sticking to each other or the surface, sprinkle more cornstarch.

Cooking these is easy, you can either steam them for about 7 minutes, boil them for 7 minutes, or (my favorite) boil them for 5 minutes then put them in a hot frying pan with non stick cooking spray, flipping them as they brown. Mmm, crunchy!

Japanese Pork Belly and Asian Sides.

I recently had an amazing Kakuni, a Japanese pork belly dish at Maekawa in the International District and decided that I would try to make one myself. I also wanted to try to make yakionigiri, since I had been quite successful a while back at make onigiri (rice balls, I stuffed mine with smoked salmon and took them on a camping trip. Shown above is my full plate when I was done. Clockwise from the upper left you see the two hard boiled eggs, which stewed with the pork belly, the failed yakionigiri, the pork belly skin up, the hot mustard, the pork belly skin down, and the chinese broccoli.

I don’t have my exact recipes, but the yakionigiri I think didn’t hold together because I used fresh rice, but basically I just took rice and molded it into balls, then broiled it in the toaster oven, painting it with soy sauce and mirin mixture every couple minutes.

 The pork belly I seared on all sides then braised in water for two hours, then added a cup of soy sauce, a little mirin, some spicy peppers, ginger and the eggs, then braised for about another hour. It still was not as tender as the one at Maekawa (which, at $5 was about the same price), but it was fairly tasty and pork belly is such a forgiving meat, as long as you braise it, it will taste great. The chinese broccoli I simply seared and then threw in with the pork belly at the last minute. It was inspred by a recent Tea Garden dim sum where I had the worst chinese broccoli ever. I needed to remind myself how good it really was.

The whole meal worked really well together and reminded me that what restaurants do is not always that much harder than what you do in the kitchen.

A Thrown Together Feast

Some days dinner starts small and grows out of control, and monday was one of those days. Yet it wasn’t hard work, and it was a lot of fun to put together. I rarely see my roommates A and O, so when I came home from playing tennis with B and started to cook our dinner, it was nice to see them around and I invited them to join us for dinner. I had just been planning to cut up some tuna sashimi and crab leg sashimi, but this would not have been enough for all four of us, so we went to work on our dinner.

I sliced up the tuna sashimi (a find at a recent farmers market) and sliced two of the crablegs up into sashimi, but instead of serving the crab leg as sashimi, I added it to a bit of defrosted frozen seaweed salad, tossing it with soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and sesame oil. O got on the steam station and steamed up an artichoke and the other 4 crab legs. A got to work on a pile of vietnamese fresh rolls, with steamed shrimp, lettuce, thin rice noodles, and hot peppers in a rice paper roll up. Served that with a little sauce of peanut butter, hot sauce and coconut milk.

By the time this all came together, a long with a starter of the leftover pumpkin soup, we had a meal that spanned multiple continents and countries with its flavor combinations, yet all of it was delicious, and it was lovely to share a meal with the roomies.